In May 2007, the
board of the School of the Spirit Ministries, on which I was serving, was in
the process of discerning whether to add a new program. We had a very intense
one-and-a-half-day meeting, which resulted in the decision to move forward with
our new program, which has since become The Way of Ministry. At the end of a
long Saturday, I headed to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station to catch a train
home to Hartford. I knew I was to speak the next morning at the Unitarian
Universalist Society of Greater Hartford, and they had asked me to give a
presentation on Quaker business practice. Sitting in the station, I was
inspired to write down four key components of Quaker corporate discernment,
using examples from the School of the Spirit Ministries board discernment
experience, which then formed the backbone of my presentation.

Over the next
year I stayed with these four components, and I have continued to grow in my
understanding of each of them. As I have sat with Friends in corporate
discernment and visited meetings in New England, I have come to believe that we
need to revisit the practice of corporate discernment. The form of our business
practice is a rich process that builds community, changes hearts, and can unite
us with the Spirit, despite differences of opinion.We need to refresh our
understanding of our purpose and our practices, and seek to hold them more
deeply, to bring ourselves more fully into alignment with God's purpose in our
lives.

At the heart of
Quakerism is George Fox's statement that there is "that of God in every one."
Quakers repeat this phrase to try to describe the core that we share. Embedded
in it is the belief that the good--that of God--can be raised up in each of us.
As early Quaker theologian Robert Barclay described his experience of worship
with Friends:

When I came into the silent
assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power amongst them which touched my
heart; and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me, and the
good raised up and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hungering more
and more after the increase of this power and life, whereby I might find myself
perfectly redeemed. (Apology
for the True Christian Divinity, Proposition 11,
Concerning Worship, par. 7).

The potential of
attending to that secret power, of listening in the silence, of giving way to
that power and finding the evil weakening and the good raised up, is
foundational to all branches of Quakerism.

The Quaker
tradition challenges us to relate to others in ways that call forth and
resonate with the good within them, however deeply it may be buried. Quakerism
is an optimistic tradition, as we believe that hearts can change and the good
can be raised up. The potential for growth in the Spirit is there for each of
us. Our worship and our business practice, at their core, are about creating
the conditions for hearts to change. By using these corporate practices we are
also learning how to act toward others in ways that honor that of God in them.

As I have
visited Quaker meetings, I have observed Friends faithfully following the form
of Quaker business practices without necessarily understanding the importance
and purpose of the forms. George Fox challenged the people around him to seek
the power rather than the form. He condemned many as engaged in religious
practices that were empty forms, where people followed their practices without
understanding the deeper meaning and so had lost contact with that meaning. We are
in danger today of living out what George Fox railed against. Accepting the
responsibility to keep the Quaker tradition living and vibrant requires that we
work to understand why we use the forms that we do, so that the practices are
not empty but rich with life. Within the Quaker practice of corporate business
there is a treasure that the world needs. It is a way of coming together as
individuals with different experiences, needs, agendas, and perspectives and
engaging with each other to strengthen relationships and make decisions that
affect the community positively.

The pillars that I see undergirding the
forms of Quaker business practice are:

·that
the meeting is rooted in worship;

·that
the meeting is clerked;

·that
there is enough time, a sense of spaciousness; and

·that decisions are made by sense of the meeting.

Meeting
for Business is Grounded in Worship

Every business
meeting begins with a time of worship. At times the worship is perfunctory, but
at its best, the opening worship is long enough to remind those present that we
are listening deeply and seeking to hear the Spirit in the agenda items
addressed.

The entire
meeting for business is the corporate implementation of the skills developed in
meeting for worship. Each time we sit together with others in corporate
worship, we have the opportunity to further develop these skills. Some of them
are at the individual level, where each of us needs to develop our inward ear,
the ear of our heart. Building upon the individual skills are the corporate
ones of listening together for something more than what we hear individually.
Both the individual and corporate skills can be understood as queries:

Can I hear
God/Spirit in my heart? Do I know what it feels like to hear God in my heart?When is my ego talking, and when
is it other? When I listen, can I tell the difference between my own ego and
Spirit?

Early in my
journey into Quakerism, after having a powerful experience of being called to
ministry, I called together a support committee of three seasoned Friends to
sit with me to provide some guidance so I didn't run ahead of--or behind--my
leading. Shortly after they came together, I was led to commit to monthly
retreats for nine months. At that time, my children were three and five years
old, so it was no small feat to make time to go away one weekend a month. The
support and understanding of my husband, John, made it possible.

I met with the
support committee right before my first retreat, and they asked what my focus
was for that particular retreat. Tears came to my eyes as I told them I didn't
know how to hear God except when I was moved to speak in meeting for worship.
My hope for the personal retreats was to be able to come to know that
voice--that Spirit: to recognize it when I felt it, and to be able to hear it
when I stopped to listen. The retreats were at different locations--a
Benedictine Abbey in Connecticut, a Quaker conference center in Massachusetts,
a friend's home on Block Island in Rhode Island--but at each place I would look
for a comfortable armchair beside a window and spent a lot of time sitting
comfortably there. That silent time was where I became aware of the physical
sensations that accompany my attending to
the Light within.

The lesson of
discerning when my ego is talking is one I have not learned easily, and I have
to relearn this lesson time and again. But I remember one particular business
session at New England Yearly Meeting where the lesson came home strongly. I
knew the session was going to be long, although I couldn't have predicted how
few people walked out even when we were over an hour and a half late in
completing the business. During that evening session I groaned internally when
someone repeated what another had already said, or when a speaker was going on
at what I thought was excessive length, or when a speaker didn't appear to be
listening to what others had said. I came to the realization early on that all
of these internal criticisms were my own ego, and I committed right then to
lifting those internal voices up, and then letting them go. I listened deeply
that night, holding the business in my heart, feeling deep warmth in my belly,
and knowing that we were exactly where we needed to be as a worshiping
community. That experience helped me name the voice of my own ego.

The touchstone
for discerning Spirit and ego in my own experience is the love that will fill
any motion that starts with Spirit. And the love will be for all. So the voice
that holds up honor and respect for each of us is more likely to be Spirit than
a voice that diminishes the worth of another. Paul provides his own guidance
for this same discernment when he says:

But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control." (Gal.
5:22)

When do I
hear Spirit moving in the silence?

Quakerism is
about listening in silence. Early Friends spoke about what happened in the
silence and focused much less on the content of vocal ministry. It was in the
silence that their hearts were broken open. As Robert Barclay describes it:

Yea, though there be not a word
spoken, yet is the true spiritual worship performed, and the body of Christ
edified; yea, it may, and hath often fallen out among us, that divers meetings
have passed without one word; and yet our souls have been greatly edified and
refreshed, and our hearts wonderfully overcome with the secret sense of God's
power and Spirit, which without words hath been ministered from one vessel to
another. (Apology
for the True Christian Divinity, Proposition 11,
Concerning Worship)

We need a vocabulary
to describe the different textures of our corporate silence so we can better
appreciate the experience. When we focus on the vocal ministry to evaluate the
quality of our corporate worship we have looked to the fruits and missed the
source. Attending to the quality of the corporate silence can disentangle the
personal issues that arise in reacting to the vocal ministry of another.
Sometimes our experience in the silence might be fragmented, distracted, or
scattered, with our thoughts and focus jumping from one thing to another. Other
times it might be a deep stillness where many of those present feel held to
attention, perhaps like what happens in a yoga asana where the breath moves
through us while the mind is quiet. Practice can help us come to that place of
deep, focused attentiveness more readily.

We practice
listening to the Spirit in meeting for worship. It is important to also
practice listening individually, on a daily basis. A regular spiritual practice
such as daily prayer time, a journal, walks in nature, or Scripture reading can
help us tune the inward ear to God's presence. Meeting for worship is an
opportunity to practice corporate listening, and the skill of listening to
Spirit as individuals prepares us to move beyond ourselves into this corporate
experience. We need to develop the skills of listening in the silence for the
Spirit, to know when the silence is rich and deep, and to feel when the silence
is scattered, disjointed, and not yet gathered. Then we will understand that
the quality of Quaker worship is about much more than the messages.

When do I
hear Spirit in the ministry of others? Can I hear the spirit of the messages of
others, the Spirit that underlies the words?

The work of
listening, the capacity to distinguish between when something is only "a good
idea" and when it is the Spirit moving, is fundamental to the Quaker business
practice. We work on that listening corporately every week in worship. This is
not an easy listening, and it is an extension of the earlier exercise of being
aware of our own ego. I have visited meetings where the Spirit was powerfully
present in the ministry, even though messages felt to be longer than needed and
there wasn't as much silence and worshipful space surrounding the messages as I
would have liked. If I had stayed with my impatience over the length of the
messages and the lack of silence, I would have missed the very real presence
and movement of the Spirit.

One of the
challenges in learning to listen deeply to the Spirit in worship and silence is
that Quakers seldom intentionally create opportunities to check with others
about what they heard in worship, and to receive feedback on our sense of when
the Spirit is moving and when it is not. We need to create more opportunities
to work on our worship skills--to talk about, practice, and then discuss the
experience.

The skills of
discernment and listening that we practice in meeting for worship are essential
for the corporate business practice. Being grounded in worship is critical. If
the worshipful environment changes or discussion becomes heated, the clerk may
ask for silence to give those present the time to go back to worshipful space.
Centering in the silence can help us be tender with the agendas of others, and
be more aware of our own.

Meeting
for Business is Clerked

Each meeting for
business has an individual who has been named to clerk the meeting. The clerk's
work includes visible and invisible tasks. The former include preparing the
agenda, calling on people to speak, and suggesting a sense of the meeting for
those present to respond to. The latter include the prayer and discernment that
go into preparing the agenda, being in a grounded and centered place from which
to attend to the motion of Spirit in the corporate body during the conduct of
business, and hearing what is not said
but is present in the room.

The visible
tasks are not necessarily simple. In most meetings, the clerk is responsible
for identifying agenda items and discerning the order in which to consider
those items. The order of the agenda can be important: for instance, addressing
difficult items--the ones where discussion might be tense--closer to the
beginning of the meeting, when people are fresh and may be more focused.

The clerk is
also responsible for recognizing individuals before they speak. This can be a
very important practice of discernment, as Jan Hoffman demonstrated during her
time clerking New England Yearly Meeting when she listened inwardly to discern
who to call on next. This is an important tool that allows clerks to wait and
feel the inward motion, reminding the body over and over of the importance of
that posture of deep listening. Clerks of New England Yearly Meeting continue
to use this practice, although some present may not understand.

A clerk can also
make use of the process of recognizing someone to speak to call the group into
waiting worship until the Spirit is ready.

In business
meeting, speakers address their remarks to the clerk. This allows a little more
space for Friends to not feel directly attacked by someone else's differing
opinion, and to listen better to perspectives that differ from their own. This
can help Friends disentangle their ego stake in an issue, listen to the
guidance of the Spirit, and be open to letting go of their own position. At
times when the business is focusing on questions of clarification or when the
business before the group is easily agreed upon, the clerk's role may seem less
critical, but even then these disciplines are important because the practice of
being recognized by the clerk and speaking to the clerk needs to be second
nature in times of tension and disagreement.

The invisible
tasks of the clerk help to hold a worshipful space and remind those present of
the importance of listening to the Spirit. Praying about the agenda, about
which items to include, whether to hold an item over to another meeting, and
how best to prepare the meeting for a particular business item can undergird
the business meeting with an invisible sense of Spirit.

The first time I
went to a meeting of New England Yearly Meeting's Ministry and Counsel, I was
deeply moved by the clerking. Cornelia Parkes maintained a presence free of
anxiety despite an overfull agenda. She had clearly prepared well; she knew the
agenda items and people involved well enough to rearrange the agenda when
needed, to attend to each business item gently and faithfully, and to keep us
in a listening space as needed to move through the work people had gathered to
complete.

One of the
important practices of a clerk is being a non-anxious presence. This is a
challenge for many of us. When a situation gets tense, we may become reactive
rather than remaining deeply rooted in our own sense of Spirit. When
disagreement or strong feelings are present, the greatest hope for change comes
when someone is able to remain in a place of centered calm. But this does not
mean disengaging from the process or from those present. Instead, it means
being able to hold the tension of others without catching it or needing to
release it. When we merely avoid tension, we limit our ability to face conflict
and to enable transformation from the tension. In contrast, staying in a place
of conflict in a respectful and centered way, knowing that we need inspiration
to resolve the conflict, releases the full transformative potential of meeting
for business and increases the likelihood that those present will be able to
hear and respond to the motion of the Spirit.

Business
Meeting Will Have Enough Time

Quakers make
jokes about how long the business process can take, generally without realizing
that what takes so long is for hearts to change. It is difficult for most of us
to admit publicly that we are wrong, especially when we have spoken strongly
about a topic. This can take a long time, particularly since we may not
consciously realize that we're waiting for participants to set down their
egoistic voices. Changing hearts is eased when we all can discern the source of
the words that come to us and to others. Quaker business practice is about
speaking our own Light on the subject, and then setting aside our own
perspective to listen to the moving of the Spirit.

At its best,
Quaker business practice carries a sense of spaciousness: the search for the
right outcome will take as long as it needs to. There is enough space for
people to bring and share their opinions, hesitations, and concerns; and
because they will not be attacked for their perspectives, or challenged
directly and personally, there is a potential for movement.

In the School of
the Spirit Ministries board meeting, where the decision was made to move
forward with the Way of Ministry Program, several board members expressed deep
concerns about the additional financial burdens and oversight responsibilities
for a new program. No one expressed a perspective that initiating a new program
would be easy. We held the concerns about the board being too small, and we
waited for the Spirit. When we found clarity, it was with a decision to move
forward in faith, trusting that way would open and the necessary resources
would be found.

I visited a
meeting some years ago whose members were struggling with questions about their
meeting space--whether they should seek another space, build an extension, or
build a new meetinghouse. They were in the stage of gathering information and
identifying and costing out the alternatives. The meeting was carefully
following Quaker process, bringing the alternatives forward. However, the
meeting was a young meeting--not in age, or even in experience with Quaker
organizations, but in having limited experience diving fully into the Quaker
tradition as a guide for individual spirituality. I was led to remind them that
when the time came to make a decision, they needed to put their own opinion of
the best option down so they could be open to how they might be led by the
Spirit.

Business
Meeting Decisions Will Be by Sense of the Meeting

One of the
assumptions in Quaker business practice is that something more than the best
wisdom of the group will be achieved--that those present are listening for
something more than what each person thinks. Working toward a sense of the
meeting is about listening for what Spirit would have us do in this instance.
It is not a negotiated settlement or compromise, giving each person some of
what they want. Rather, it is a moving toward, which does not require logical agreement.

At its best,
Quaker business builds the worshiping community, strengthens relationships, and
encourages each of us to grow. When our corporate decisions are faithful to
this Spirit, they not only change the participants; they hold the seeds that
change the world.

Subscribe

Quote that speaks to me

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their friendship. If absence be not death, neither is theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this Divine Glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This
is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet
their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present,
because immortal. - William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude, 1702.

Note: This passage was quoted by J.K.Rowling as the epigraph of her novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It is as a "religion of life" that Quakerism will be presented in the future and is being presented now.

Its distinguishing note will be its resolve to bring all this human life of ours under the transforming power of spiritual life.It
will stand out against all divisions and compartments that separate the
sacred from the secular, the sanctuary from the outward world of
nature, the sacrament from the days' common work, the clergy from the
laity.

It will tell of a Christian
experience that makes all life sacred and all days holy, all nature a
sanctuary, all work a sacrament, and gives to every man and woman in the
body fit place and service.Its concern will be to
multiply men and women who will have a message of power because they are
themselves the children of light.It will claim the whole
of man's life, and the whole of life, individual, social, national
international, for the dominion of the will of God.

Recent Entries

My wife, Phyllis Taylor, and I feel very fortunate to have been a small part of the freedom struggle that resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. I am very sorry to say that, during the war of independence, our own beloved country, the United States of America, was secretly sending military supplies to Pakistan which were used to kill and oppress citizens of what was then called East Pakistan. …

When our hearts are knit together in powerfully gathered waiting worship do we not enter into living water and drink deeply from it? What deeper spiritual refreshment could be available to us than this drawing on the living water that Christ offers us every time we gather with Friends to wait expectantly upon this gift? …

Who in your assemblies sometimes feel a testimony for the Lord to spring to your hearts, keep your watch in the light, that so none stay behind, nor run before. But let all that open their mouths in the assemblies of the Lord's people do it as the oracle of God in the arising of the eternal power. For nothing can beget to God but what comes from the word of life that lives & abides forever; and nothing can refresh, strengthen or comfort that which is begotten by the word of life but what springs from the same. …